We asked ten founders and CEOs to share their most successful marketing strategies that generate the highest ROI. From utilizing LinkedIn outreach to repurposing content as video, discover which strategies work best for these business leaders.
- Utilize LinkedIn Outreach
- Automate Email Marketing
- Launch a Birthday Campaign
- Target High-Value Clients
- Optimize Pay-Per-Click Ads
- Implement a Referral Program
- Provide Educational Content
- Optimize for Long-Tail Keywords
- Build a Content Ecosystem
- Repurpose Content as Video
Utilize LinkedIn Outreach
One of the most successful marketing strategies that brought high ROI for our legal process outsourcing company was leveraging LinkedIn for targeted outreach. We identified key decision-makers in our target industries and began sharing valuable, industry-specific content directly with them via personalized messages and regular LinkedIn posts.
One campaign in particular involved sharing case studies that demonstrated how our services improved efficiency for law firms.
This approach not only increased our visibility but also led to meaningful conversations with potential clients. By focusing on genuine connections and offering tailored solutions, we converted several high-value clients, making LinkedIn outreach one of our most effective strategies for driving growth.
Aseem Jha
Founder, Legal Consulting Pro
Automate Email Marketing
Email marketing automation has been a cornerstone of our ROI-driven strategies. By developing personalized email journeys based on user actions and engagement levels, we can deliver timely and relevant content that moves leads through the sales funnel efficiently. This automated process keeps our brand top-of-mind and regularly engages potential clients, nurturing leads without substantial manual effort.
Our “Influencer Collaboration Series” involved teaming up with well-known e-commerce platforms and tech influencers to create content that showcased the integration of our services with popular e-commerce tools. Each influencer shared this content across their networks, accompanied by their personal testimonials about our services. This not only broadened our reach but also provided social proof that enhanced credibility and trust. The campaign generated over three times the engagement of our regular posts and doubled our average conversion rate from social media.
Marc Bishop
Director, Wytlabs
Launch a Birthday Campaign
Our most successful marketing strategy was a birthday campaign that utilized the PAS (Problem-Agitate-Solution) framework, focusing on engaging our loyal partners and users. We generated anticipation by identifying key pain points and engaging our audience through social media polls and teasers.
During our birthday campaign, we created a memorable experience for our loyal partners and users by designing special discount offers and SWAG boxes. We wanted to celebrate not just our growth but also the incredible community that supports us. Each SWAG box was thoughtfully curated, featuring exclusive items and branded merchandise that reflected our brand’s spirit. We included personalized notes to express our gratitude, making each recipient feel valued. The special discounts provided our partners with an added incentive to engage with our brand, fostering deeper connections.
After the launch, we followed up with thank-you emails and encouraged social media sharing, amplifying user-generated content to foster community. This initiative resulted in a 60% increase in sales and significantly boosted our social media presence. By honoring our loyal supporters and creating meaningful partnerships, we generated a wave of positive buzz that aligned perfectly with our celebration, making it one of our most effective campaigns ever.
Vaibhav Namburi
Founder, Smartlead.ai
Target High-Value Clients
The marketing strategy that has consistently delivered the highest ROI is account-based marketing (ABM) combined with personalized outreach. ABM allows us to focus on high-value, ideal-fit prospects, tailoring our efforts to directly address their specific pain points and needs. This approach is highly targeted, ensuring that every resource spent—whether on content creation, email outreach, or paid ads—is laser-focused on converting high-value clients.
One successful ABM strategy we implemented involved creating highly personalized, industry-specific case studies for digital marketing agencies. We began by identifying a select group of target accounts that fit our ideal client profile—agencies that were growing rapidly but struggling to scale their sales processes.
For each target, we crafted custom outreach emails that included a personalized case study showcasing how we helped similar companies streamline lead generation and improve conversion rates. We also highlighted specific solutions relevant to their industry, making the content directly applicable to their unique challenges.
We supported the email outreach with targeted LinkedIn ads that aligned with the messaging in the emails, ensuring our brand stayed top of mind. This multichannel, personalized approach led to a 40% response rate, with many prospects booking meetings after engaging with the case studies.
The ROI was significant—this campaign resulted in several new long-term clients, with an overall increase in revenue of over 30%. The key to success was the combination of personalization, account-specific insights, and multichannel outreach, which made the messaging relevant and compelling to our target audience. This strategy not only improved immediate conversions but also strengthened relationships with high-value clients.
Reed Daniels
Owner, Rail Trip Strategies
Optimize Pay-Per-Click Ads
Pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, particularly on search engines and social media platforms, has been a cornerstone of our ROI-driving strategies. By continuously optimizing our ads based on performance data, including A/B testing of ad copy and creative elements, we’ve been able to achieve high conversion rates while maintaining cost-efficiency. This method provides immediate results and valuable insights into audience behavior, which inform broader marketing strategies.
For a technology client, we executed a detailed strategy focusing on thought leadership within their niche. We initiated a series of webinars and whitepapers featuring industry experts discussing future trends in tech, which were promoted through targeted PPC campaigns and strategic partnerships with tech news outlets. This approach not only built significant brand authority but also led to a substantial increase in qualified leads, as participants were engaged with the content and viewed the client as a leading voice in the industry.
Jason Hennessey
CEO, Hennessey Digital
Implement a Referral Program
Our referral program offered monthly commissions for the duration of the referral’s client relationship, which motivated our users to refer serious, long-term clients. This approach drove sustained growth with minimal marketing costs and created a loyal referral base invested in our success.
Slavko Kovacevic
Head of SEO, Health Link SEO
Provide Educational Content
One marketing strategy that has brought the most ROI has been our content-marketing strategy focused on educational resources tailored to healthcare providers. By developing a range of valuable, industry-specific content, such as whitepapers, webinars, and case studies, we positioned ourselves as experts in the healthcare revenue cycle management (RCM) space. This strategy not only built trust with our target audience but also served as a powerful lead-generation tool.
Our most successful strategy revolved around creating gated content, which required users to provide their contact information in exchange for access to premium resources, like in-depth guides on improving revenue cycles, reducing claim denials, and maximizing cash flow. Once we had their information, we enrolled them in automated email nurture campaigns that delivered personalized content based on their specific interests.
For example, healthcare administrators who downloaded a whitepaper on billing automation would receive a series of follow-up emails offering case studies, customer testimonials, and an invitation to a webinar on how automation improves efficiency in healthcare settings. This approach helped move leads down the funnel without overwhelming our sales team, as the automation handled much of the initial nurturing.
The ROI was significant because the leads generated from this content were highly qualified. By the time they engaged with our sales team, they were already well-informed about our services and how they could benefit their organization. As a result, conversion rates were higher, and the sales cycle was shortened. This content-marketing strategy consistently delivered strong results by focusing on solving real pain points for our target audience, while the automated workflows ensured that we were efficiently nurturing those leads into sales-ready opportunities.
Sandra Stoughton
Director, Marketing Operations, TruBridge
Optimize for Long-Tail Keywords
The marketing strategy that has delivered the highest ROI for our business is a targeted SEO approach focused on long-tail keywords relevant to our niche. By conducting in-depth keyword research, we identified specific, less competitive search terms that align with our audience’s needs, and incorporated them into high-quality content across our website. This strategy has steadily increased organic traffic and improved our search engine rankings, resulting in a sustained flow of qualified leads and conversions without the ongoing costs of paid advertising.
Doug Darroch
Managing Director, Renaissance Digital Marketing
Build a Content Ecosystem
One of the most successful marketing strategies that has consistently brought the highest ROI for my business and the businesses of my clients is building a personalized content-marketing ecosystem. Here’s how it works in detail:
We focus on creating highly targeted content across multiple platforms, but the key is segmentation and automation. We divide our audience into very specific customer personas based on their industry, needs, and behavior. Each segment then receives tailored content that speaks directly to their pain points, solutions, and goals.
For example, one of our most effective campaigns was for small-business owners in the tech sector. We launched a blog series that tackled common industry challenges, created downloadable guides on improving lead generation, and hosted webinars with actionable tips specific to this audience. We complemented this with email marketing that included a drip campaign targeting leads with different levels of engagement. Every email was personalized, addressing unique pain points based on where the lead was in the sales funnel.
To further increase the impact, we leveraged social proof, such as case studies and testimonials, that resonated with each segment. And importantly, we monitored the performance of each piece of content, using analytics to refine our approach continuously.
This holistic strategy of content creation, segmentation, automation, and constant optimization significantly boosted conversions and ROI. It wasn’t just about volume; it was about delivering the right message to the right people at the right time.
Jan Watermann
Owner and CEO, Watermann Consulting LLC
Repurpose Content as Video
The marketing strategy that has consistently delivered the most ROI for our clients is converting their existing website content into engaging videos for social media platforms like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook. Many of our clients come to us with a wealth of written content—blog posts, articles, and case studies—but they often struggle to get the same level of engagement from these formats on social media. That’s where we come in.
We’ve found that repurposing this content into videos tailored for different social platforms not only extends the life of the content but also significantly boosts engagement. For instance, we’ll take a client’s high-performing blog post and create a series of videos from it: a longer explainer video for YouTube, a quick 30-second teaser for Instagram, and a more dynamic, trend-focused clip for TikTok. By doing this, we help our clients reach a broader audience across multiple channels while maintaining consistent messaging.
This approach has proven incredibly effective. Our clients have seen marked increases in both social media engagement and website traffic. What’s more, these video-driven visitors tend to spend more time on their sites and show higher conversion rates compared to those who arrive via text-based content alone.
By focusing on converting existing content into video, we help our clients maximize the impact of their marketing efforts, ensuring their messages resonate across platforms and deliver tangible results. This strategy has become a cornerstone of our work, providing substantial returns on investment for the businesses we support.
Taylor Walker
Co-Founder & CEO, Growth Spurt